Wednesday, 12th June - Peguera and Palma
Reasonably good night's kip, although the aircon and minibar fridge were a bit noisy. There was also a fair amount of chat/TV noise early doors.
Weather on waking was overcast, but around 19 degrees. Thought I'd risk my shorts, which turned out to be a good move.
Leisurely buffet breakfast of good quality, then had a walk around Peguera. Not bad, but very touristy. Went into the local tourist information office, which was very helpful. As a result, we decided to try getting the bus into Palma just to have a look around.
Not too shabby a view from the breakfast terrace:
Finding the right bus stop proved rather more puzzling than it should have been, and when we got there, there were a lot of similarly bemused Germans (the Germans LOVE Majorca and there are an awful lot of them around). Two buses just went straight through (?) but we finally managed to get onto the right bus after a 20 minute wait. This deposited us within 200 metres of the enormous cathedral in Palma, the capital of Majorca, for the princely sum of 3.80 € each. An absolute steal, although the bus was very crowded. It went along the motorway, but diverted to a place called Santa Ponsa on the way to pick up another load of people.
Went wandering just to try and get our bearings and once again ended up in a tourist information office, of which there seem to be many. Once again, a very helpful gentleman gave us some ideas and off we set on a walk around the Parc de la Mar, right under the auspices of the cathedral. We didn't go in - we're reserving that for a future visit - but ended up in a tapas bar in the northern centre of Palma. I'm not a tapas expert - this is a shortcoming which must be addressed right speedily - but we had a couple of drinks with associated tapas which went down very well. Nice and warm and sunny now.
Next challenge was to get back to our hotel. We decided to go to the bus station in Palma to start our journey back, which turned out to be a great move. Just got there in time - it's an enormous underground operation - and managed to find probably almost the last two seats on the bus. And still people kept piling on.
Eventually, the bus left and stopped in central Palma to pick up more passengers. The bus was already full with standing passengers, but the driver let more and more on. Eventually he had to turn some away, and we started our journey back westward with a bus that was bottoming out on its suspension and sounding very ropey when using engine braking, which was quite often.
The atmosphere inside the bus was very claustrophobic and as we started back into Santa Ponsa, there was a scream from the rear of the bus and a general shout for the driver to stop. He didn't, but mercifully was only a short distance from an official stop. It transpired that a lady had had a panic attack, probably due to the crowding on the bus, and her partner had slapped her. It was at this point she started yelling. Apparently, this rather cruel act brought her round and her partner was obviously used to this sort of thing. Last we saw before the bus departed was both of them sitting on a bench with her drinking water by the gallon and looking very shaken.
Got back to Peguera with no further incident and disembarked from the bus. Took a walk in the opposite direction from the hotel and identified several nice-looking restaurants whose custom we might favour later this evening. To assist our planning, we ordered a couple of G&Ts, which were delivered in style to our room.
Ended up at a steak house (La Pampa) which had caught our eye earlier. We both went for a T-bone steak which was enormous when it turned up. Very tasty indeed, though. Wine was, however, indifferent. Service was very swift and efficient, without being in any way involving. In fact, we both felt a bit rushed.
Wandered back along the promenade to our room for a (relatively) early night.
Weather on waking was overcast, but around 19 degrees. Thought I'd risk my shorts, which turned out to be a good move.
Leisurely buffet breakfast of good quality, then had a walk around Peguera. Not bad, but very touristy. Went into the local tourist information office, which was very helpful. As a result, we decided to try getting the bus into Palma just to have a look around.
Not too shabby a view from the breakfast terrace:
Finding the right bus stop proved rather more puzzling than it should have been, and when we got there, there were a lot of similarly bemused Germans (the Germans LOVE Majorca and there are an awful lot of them around). Two buses just went straight through (?) but we finally managed to get onto the right bus after a 20 minute wait. This deposited us within 200 metres of the enormous cathedral in Palma, the capital of Majorca, for the princely sum of 3.80 € each. An absolute steal, although the bus was very crowded. It went along the motorway, but diverted to a place called Santa Ponsa on the way to pick up another load of people.
 |
| Cathedral in Palma |
 |
| And again |
 |
| And again |
 |
| And again |
 |
| And again |
 |
| Finally.... |
Went wandering just to try and get our bearings and once again ended up in a tourist information office, of which there seem to be many. Once again, a very helpful gentleman gave us some ideas and off we set on a walk around the Parc de la Mar, right under the auspices of the cathedral. We didn't go in - we're reserving that for a future visit - but ended up in a tapas bar in the northern centre of Palma. I'm not a tapas expert - this is a shortcoming which must be addressed right speedily - but we had a couple of drinks with associated tapas which went down very well. Nice and warm and sunny now.
Next challenge was to get back to our hotel. We decided to go to the bus station in Palma to start our journey back, which turned out to be a great move. Just got there in time - it's an enormous underground operation - and managed to find probably almost the last two seats on the bus. And still people kept piling on.
Eventually, the bus left and stopped in central Palma to pick up more passengers. The bus was already full with standing passengers, but the driver let more and more on. Eventually he had to turn some away, and we started our journey back westward with a bus that was bottoming out on its suspension and sounding very ropey when using engine braking, which was quite often.
The atmosphere inside the bus was very claustrophobic and as we started back into Santa Ponsa, there was a scream from the rear of the bus and a general shout for the driver to stop. He didn't, but mercifully was only a short distance from an official stop. It transpired that a lady had had a panic attack, probably due to the crowding on the bus, and her partner had slapped her. It was at this point she started yelling. Apparently, this rather cruel act brought her round and her partner was obviously used to this sort of thing. Last we saw before the bus departed was both of them sitting on a bench with her drinking water by the gallon and looking very shaken.
Got back to Peguera with no further incident and disembarked from the bus. Took a walk in the opposite direction from the hotel and identified several nice-looking restaurants whose custom we might favour later this evening. To assist our planning, we ordered a couple of G&Ts, which were delivered in style to our room.
Ended up at a steak house (La Pampa) which had caught our eye earlier. We both went for a T-bone steak which was enormous when it turned up. Very tasty indeed, though. Wine was, however, indifferent. Service was very swift and efficient, without being in any way involving. In fact, we both felt a bit rushed.
Wandered back along the promenade to our room for a (relatively) early night.
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